Sandbagging Safety

July 11, 1986|By blue

Here we go again.

Ford Motor Co. wants a change in federal rules requiring it to build automatic restraints for front-seat passengers into all its 1990 model automobiles. That's right, two decades after Washington first feinted at forcing Detroit to build this safety into its cars, Ford has reams of reasons for loosening this overdue rule.

The rule is simple: Starting in the fall of 1989, new autos must protect the driver and the right-side passenger with two air bags, two automatic belts or one of each.

Without more flexibility, Ford will take the option of the automatic belts; it says there are engineering obstacles with the bags, and bags cost more than automatic belts.

But it wants a new option: giving the driver an air bag and leaving the passenger to buckle up on his own. On close inspection, Ford's half step toward air bags has major credibility problems.

First, there's the company's claim that air bags for the right side pose major, unsolved engineering problems. Yes, the engineering is trickier because the bag must fill a bigger space and the passenger's position isn't as predictable as the driver's. But Ford has had many years to design and test air bags for the right side of a car. If it's a rushed job now, the company has only itself to blame.

Second, Ford claims that highway deaths will decline more from putting air bags on the left and doing nothing on the right than from installing front- seat safety belts that work automatically. It reasons that people determined to drive beltless can disconnect these devices. Furthermore, it argues, as state laws prod more highway travelers to buckle up anyway, the safety increase from belts that work automatically diminishes. In other words, one air bag is better than none if people are belted anyway.

But wait a minute. The best protection is for people to be buckled up and to have an air bag for extra lifesaving protection.

And given the free market in luxury cars -- a market where Mercedes-Benz has made a driver-side air bag standard in all 1986 models and plans to provide them on the right side by fall 1989 -- unless Washington okays the Ford option. So it's clear that Detroit will have to proceed with front-seat air bags on some models to compete. It's bad policy to let Ford -- and all other automakers -- wriggle out of making any right-side air bags. Such delays could drag on and on.